ADDRESS 


DEUVERED  BEFORE  THE 


NEW-YORK  STITB  AGRICETURAL  SOCIETY, 


AT    THE    CAPITOL, 


IN  THE  CITY  OF  ALBANY, 


On  the  Evening  of  the  18th  Jannary,  1849. 


BY   LEWIS   F.  ALLEN, 

Late  Prendent  of  the  Society. 


PUBLISHED    BY   ORDER   OF   THE  ASSEMBLY. 


ALBANY: 

WEED,  PARSONS  &  CO.,   PUBLIC  PRINTERS. 

1849. 


STATE  OF  NEW -YORK,  1 
In  Assembly,  January  19,  1849.  \ 

Rtsalvtd,  That  the  late  President  of  the  State  Agricultural  Society  be  requested 
to  furnish  to  this  House  for  publication,  a  copy  of  his  able  agricultural  address,  de- 
livered in  the  Assembly  chamber  before  the  Society,  on  the  evening  of  the  18th  in- 
stant. 


NEW- YORK  STATE  AGRICULTURAL  SOCIETY,) 

Agricultural  Rooms,  >- 

Albany,  January,  \9th,  1849.         } 

Hon.  a.  K.  Hadley,  Speaker  of  the  AssemUy  : 

DEAR  SIR  : — Lewis  F.  Allen,  Esq.,  late  President,'having  presented  to  the  Ex- 
ecutive Committee  a  resolution  of  your  honorable  body  for  "  a  copy  of  his  able 
aildress,  delivered  on  the  evening  of  the  18th  instant,  before  the  Society  for  publi- 
cation." I  am  instructed  by  the  Executive  Committee  to  return  to  the  Hon.  the 
Assembly  their  most  sincere  thanks  for  this  testimonial  of  approbation  to  the  cause 
of  Agriculture,  and  to  the  Society  whose  interests  they  are  endeavoring  to  promote, 
as  well  as  to  the  late  respected  President  of  our  Society  ;  and  that  they  most  cheer- 
fully comply  with  the  request  presented.  I  send  herewith  a  copy  of  the  address, 
which  had  been  delivered  over  to  our  Society  by  the  President,  Mr.  Allen,  previous 
to  his  reception  of  the  resolution  of  your  honorable  body« 

I  have  the  honor  to  be. 

Most  respectfully. 

Your  obt.  servt., 

B.  P.  JOHNSON, 
Cor.  Secretary  JV.  Y.  8.  Ag.  Society . 


In  Assembly,  January  22d,  1849. 

lii-t->lvcd,  That  twenty  times  the  usual  number  of  copies  of  the  said  address  be 
{  :m:U'.1  io:  tho  ms  of  the  Legislature,  and  five  hundred  copies  for  the  Agricultural 
.Snric'j-.  By  order. 

PHILANDER  B.  PRINDLE, 
•  Clerk  of  the  Assembly, 


Digitized  by  tine  Internet  Arciiive 

in  2007  witii  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


littp://www.arcliive.org/details/addressdeiiveredOOalleiala 


ADDRESS. 


Gentlemen  of  the  New- York  State  Agricultural  Society. — 
The  year  has  closed  upon  you  with  a  season  of  prosperity  to  your 
general  interests  ;  of  abundance  in  the  productions  of  your  husban- 
dry ;  and,  I  trust,  of  usual  health  to  your  families.  Grateful  to  the 
Giver  of  all  good  for  the  manifold  blessings  showered  upon  us,  it 
becomes  us  to  improve  the  signal  advantages  we  enjoy,  and  com- 
mence the  new  year  of  our  action  with  invigorated  efforts  in  the 
great  labor  with  which  we  are  charged. 

The  magnitude  of  the  operations  of  this  Society,  constituted  of 
those  representing  the  most  numerous  body  of  our  population  ;  re- 
lying solely  upon  the  popular  approbation  for  its  support  and  its  suc- 
cess ;  built  up  during  a  series  of  years,  by  the  strong  efforts  and 
ready  hands  of  its  managers  and  contributors  ;  fostered  by  the  boun- 
ty of  the  public ;  and  cheered  by  the  approbation  and  the  recogni- 
tion of  the  Legislature,  its  position  has  become  one  of  marked  re- 
sponsibility, extensive  usefulness,  and  of  State,  nay,  of  national  im- 
portance. 

In  the  annual  address  which  custom  has  sanctioned,  and  seemed  to 
make  imperative  on  your  presiding  officer,  it  can  hardly  be  expected 
that,  aside  from  a  general  view  of  the  progress  and  affairs  of  your 
Society,  both  of  which  are  more  correctly  detailed  in  the  reports  with 
which  you  have  been  favored  than  could  be  here  given,  a  learned  or 


professional  discourse  should  be  the  burthen  of  his  valedictory. 
Such  certainly  cannot  be  that  of  mine  ;  and  I  shall  intrude  no  fur- 
ther on  the  important  proceedings  before  you,  than  to  give  such  pass- 
ing notice  as  the  subject  may  demand,  to  the  practical  objects  connec- 
ted with  your  institution. 

A  period  of  seven  years,  since  the  present  organization  of  our  So- 
ciety, has  passed,  and  it  may  be  not  without  interest,  and  instruction 
to  review  the  history  of  the  efforts  which  have  been  made  to  attain 
our  present  position,  and  to  advert  slightly  to  the  progress  we  have 
accomplished,  as  the  result  of  well  directed  and  systematic  action  to 
promote  organization  and  improvement  in  the  most  neglected,  yet 
most  important  of  all  the  arts  of  civilized  life. 

Passing  imnoticed  the  occasional  efforts  of  eminent  individuals 
in  the  last  century  to  excite  public  attention  to  agricultural  improve- 
ment, the  late  transactions  of  the  "  Board  of  Agriculture  "  of  this 
State  are  the  most  prominent,  previous  to  the  action  of  the  present 
Society.  In  the  month  of  April,  1819,  the  Legislature  passed  a  law 
distributing  $10,000  per  annum  to  the  several  counties  for  the  term 
of  two  years,  for  the  improvement  of  agriculture,  and  confided  the 
trust  to  a  Board  of  Managers  ;  and  in  March,  1820,  the  Legislature 
extended  the  act  to  a  further  term  of  four  years.  The  results  of 
this  beneficent  measure  were  immediately  felt  throughout  the  entire 
State,  most  of  the  counties  forming  agricultural  societies,  and  many 
individuals  making  spirited  exertions  in  the  improvement  of  their 
farms,  crops,  domestic  animals,  and  household  manufactures.  Under 
the  awakened  influence  of  this  law,  an  agricultural  paper  was  com- 
menced in  the  city  of  Albany,  patronized  and  recommended  by  the 
Board  of  Agriculture,  and  a  considerable  circulation  in  this  and  the 
neighboring  States  obtained.  A  biennial  volume  of  "  Memoirs  of  the 
Board  of  Agriculture,"  amounting  to  three  in  number,  was  published 


T 


by  the  managers,  containing  much  useful  matter ;  but  from  the  ab- 
sence of  that  practical  management  only  to  be  obtained  through  an 
experience  in  the  daily  routine  of  agricultural  affairs,  and  a  failure  to 
enlist  the  affections  of  the  farmers  generally  in  the  operations  and 
proceedings  of  the  local  societies,  the  necessary  interest  flagged  in 
their  support,  and  after  a  few  exhibitions,  most  of  them  expired  a 
natural  death,  while  but  few  survived  their  legal  probation.  The 
State  patronage  expired  by  its  own  limitation  ;  the  volumes  of  "  Me- 
moirs" lay  uncalled  for  in  the  offices  of  the  different  county  clerks, 
and  the  Albany  "  Plough  Boy  "  engulphed  in  politics,  died  out  by 
its  own  inanition. 

Thus  passed  the  agricultural  action  of  1819  through  to  1825. 
And  although  many  wise,  benevolent,  and  active  men  were  engaged 
in  promoting  the  immediate  welfare  of  the  agricultural  community 
by  efforts  to  excite  their  own  self-improvement,  the  farming  interest 
was  not  sufficiently  alive  to  profit  as  it  ought  by  either  the  State 
bounty,  or  those  individual  efforts.  The  law  had  become  odious  and 
unpopular  ;  mainly  because  the  recipients  of  that  bounty  knew  not 
how  to  use  it ;  and  agriculture  sunk  again  to  the  dull  monotony  of 
its  former  labors,  and  was  left  to  individual  improvement  as  occasion, 
accident,  or  private  enterprise  should  determine.  Still,  this  measure 
effected  great  good.  Numerous  instances  of  decided  progress  became 
manifest  under  the  stimulus  of  competition  at  the  different  county 
cattle  shows  ;  and  men  of  wealth,  attached  to  agricultural  interests, 
and  of  other  professions  became  active  promoters  of  improvement  in 
various  departments  of  husbandry.  It  was  under  the  stimulating  in- 
fluences of  that  law  that  your  late  distinguished  fellow  citizens  Ru- 
Fus  King  imported  the  Devon,  and  Stephen  Van  Rensselaer,  the 
Short  Horn  cattle  from  England  into  this  State.  Other  importations 
of  domestic  animals  were  made  by  different  parties,  the  stock  of 


f 


which  still  exist  to  benefit  your  husbandry.  From  that  time  howev- 
er, soundly  slept  every  thing  like  State  patronage  to  agriculture, 
agitated  by  only  an  occasional  throe  at  public  improvement  by  the 
late  lamented  Jesse  Buel,  and  a  few  kindred  spirits,  whose  wakeful 
minds  were  ever  alive  to  the  importance  of  agricultural  progress ; 
and  since  the  demise  of  the  "  Plough  Boy,"  not  a  single  publication 
devoted  to  its  interest  had  issued  froin  a  public  press,  imtil  in  1828, 
when  the  "  Kew-York  Farmer,"  a  monthly  periodical,  was  published 
in  the  city  of  New-York.  The  circulation  of  this  paper,  however, 
was  limited,  and  its  influence  consequently  feeble  in  arousing  the  re- 
quired interest  to  resuscitate  the  effort  necessary  to  awaken  the  exist- 
ing torpor  of  the  agricultural  community.  In  1831  commenced  the 
publication  of  the  "  Genesee  Farmer,"  in  Rochester,  a  weekly  peri- 
odical, conducted  with  ability  and  spirit,  and  now,  through  its  suc- 
cessor, by  the  same  title,  continued,  in  a  growing  career  of  useful- 
ness. 

But  the  chief  actors  in  the  work  which  we  have  detailed,  were 
passing  away,  and  the  younger  generation  taking  their  places,  were 
gradually  catching  the  spirit  of  emulation,  occasionally  thrown  off  by 
the  survivors,  imtil  in  February,  1832,  a  few  gentlemen  from  differ- 
ent sections  of  the  State,  assembled  in  Albany,  and  formed  the  New- 
York  State  Agricultural  Society,  since  recognized  by  the  State,  and 
now  the  body  of  which  you,  gentlemen,  compose  the  members.  This 
was  seventeen  years  ago  ;  and,  although  in  the  recollection  of  most 
of  you,  as  but  yesterday,  it  is  amusing,  as  well  as  interesting,  to  mark 
the  position  of  the  few  then  assembled — a  forlorn  hope — in  contrast 
with  the  attitude  you  now  present  in  the  agricultural  interests  of  this 
State,  and  of  the  American  Union.  A  constitution  was  formed,  a 
president  and  four  vice  presidents  elected,  and  a  report  of  its  proceed- 
ings published  in  the  Albany  newspapers.     Among  the  gentlemen 


9 


then  composing  that  little,  yet  important  body,  surviving  others  who 
have  passed  to  their  final  rest,  I  count  now  before  me  a  few  still  ac- 
tive and  prominent  members  from  that  day  to  this,  honored  mean- 
time with  its  highest  confidence,  and  conferring  valuable  benefits  on 
their  fellow  men.     Yet  torpid,  comparatively,  as  was  the  action  of 
this  body,  and  obliged  to  give  utterance  to  its  proceedings,  save  thro' 
the  political  papers,  which  took  no  interest  in  its  labors,  through  the 
then  feebly  supported  agricultural  papers  at  New-York  and  Roches- 
ter, the  creation  of  the  State  Society  rapidly  awakened  an  interest  in 
different  sections  of  the  State ;  and  in  less  than  two  years  from  its 
formation,  five  or  six  county  societies  were  organized.     In  1833,  ap- 
plication was  made  by  the  Society  to  the  Legislature,  for  a  law  mak- 
ing a  public  appropriation  of  money  for  the  promotion  of  Agriculture, 
and  a  report  was  made  thereon  in  the  Assembly  by  Mr.  Avery  Skin- 
ner, of  the  county  of  Oswego.     But  our  Legislature  were  too  deeply 
engaged  in  the  exciting  process  of  creating  corporations  to  listen  to 
the  modest  petitions,  or  devote  their  time  to  the  welfare  of  the  far- 
mer, and  the  application  fell  stillborn  before  them. 

Cheered  on,  however,  by  the  brightening  indications  abroad,  the 
Society  resolved  to  hold  a  State  cattle  show  at  Albany,  in  October  of 
that  year,  and  a  very  creditable  display  of  superior  stock,  farm  pro- 
ducts and  implements  was  made  ;  but  controlling  no  funds  where- 
with to  award  premiums,  it  was  not  successfully  repeated  during  its 
then  existing  organization. 

In  1834,  the  Society  resolved  on  the  publication  of  a  paper  in  Al- 
bany, devoted  to  the  Agricultural  interest,  and  the  "  Cultivator"  was 
established,  with  Jesse  Buel  as  its  conductor.  This  movement  gave 
at  once  an  impulse  to  the  cause,  and  awakened  public  attention  to  the 
long  dormant  subject  of  agricultural  improvement. 

Late  in  1835,  a  call  numerously  signed  by  gentlemen  from  differ- 
ent parts  of  the  State,  connected  with  the  Society,  was  made  through 


10 


the  newspapers  for  an  Agricultural  Convention,  to  be  held  in  Albany 
on  the  second  Monday  in  February,  1836.  Emanating  from  the 
State  Society,  and  its  prominent  members  in  attendance,  a  formidable 
array  of  numbers  appeared  on  the  occasion  of  its  meeting ;  and  to 
such  extent,  that  in  place  of  the  contracted  apartments  which  had 
hitherto  accommodated  with  entire  convenience  the  Society,  while  in 
session,  the  use  of  the  Assembly  chamber  was  requested  for  their  ac- 
accommodation,  and  with  the  usual  courtesy  of  the  house,  granted  for 
the  occasion.  Instead,  too,  of  the  half  concealed  sneer  on  the  part  of 
honorable  and  aspiring  members  of  the  Legislature,  at  first ;  not 
only  they,  comprising  by  a  large  majority,  other  trades  and  profes- 
sions than  that  of  agriculture,  attended  ;  but  that  indispensable  and 
time-honored  fraternity  termed  "  the  lobby,"  then,  as  now,  an  impor- 
tant adjunct  to  the  law  making  power,  with  a  most  disinterested  zeal 
for  agricultural  improvement,  readily  joined,  as  members  of  the  Con- 
vention, and  became,  for  the  time,  most  spirited  and  patriotic  farmers; 
and  so  far  as  their  speeches  and  votes  in  convention  were  concerned, 
demonstrated  beyond  a  cavil,  the  necessity  of  the  fostering  aid  of  the 
State  to  the  neglected  and  dormant  condition  of  its  agriculture. 

But  the  spirit  of  curiosity,  which  attracted  many  who  had  enrolled 
their  names  as  members  of  that  Convention,  and  who  could  not  ima- 
gine what  legitimate  object  there  could  be  in  an  assemblage  of  this 
sort,  rapidly  changed  to  a  spirit  of  inquiry  ;  and  during  a  short  ses- 
sion of  two  days,  sufficient  matter  was  developed  for  a  year's  reflec- 
tion on  a  subject  which  had  now  become,  to  many  of  them,  one  of 
the  highest  consideration  ;  and  it  is  but  an  act  of  simple  justice,  as 
well  as  of  true  gratification  to  remark,  that  many  of  the  present  most 
substantial  supporters  of  the  Society,  and  promoters  of  its  objects, 
then  skeptical  to  its  merits,  imbibed  their  zeal  from  that  Convention, 
and  those  which  succeeded  it.  A  like  convention  was  held  during 
several  successive  winters  at  Albany,  and  the  subject  of  pubUc  aid 


ii 


to  agriculture  each  time  presented  to  the  Legislature,  who  continued 
still  regardless  of  their  memorials. 

In  1838,  then  a  member  of  the  Assembly,  and  Chairman  of  the 
Committee  on  Agriculture — a  committee  so  far  as  practical  legislation 
was  concerned,  of  no  other  consequence  than  to  flatter  the  farmer 
w^ith  the  empty  compliment  that  his  profession  was  recognized  in 
State  affairs — myself  introduced  a  billy  based  upon  that  of  1819,  for  the 
encouragement  of  agriculture.  That  measure  was  well  received  by 
the  House  ;  was  several  times  discussed,  and  I  have  little  doubt,  had 
time  permitted,  would  have  received  a  vote  sufficiently  large  to  pass  ; 
but  owing  to  the  determined  opposition  of  the  Chairman  of  the  Ag- 
ricultural Committee  in  the  Senate,  who  had  imbibed  his  prejudices 
from  the  workings  of  the  law  of  1819,  and  then  declared  that  he 
would  never  report  the  bill  to  that  body,  if  it  even  passed  the  As- 
sembly, and  he  too  a  large  and  wealthy  farmer,  the  bill  was  not 
pressed  beyond  a  few  occasional  discussions.  Sufficient,  however, 
was  ascertained  of  the  legislative  approbation,  to  encourage  future  ap- 
plications to  a  successful  issue. 

The  next  year,  and  the  next,  with  accumulated  force,  and  far  more 
formidable  pressure,  from  the  increasing  multitude  of  applications ; 
and,  urged  by  the  continued  annual  Conventions  upon  the  Legisla- 
ture, with  many  zealous  and  right  hearted  members  to  conduct  the 
measure  in  both  its  bodies,  our  cause  indicated  a  progress  that  must 
soon  become  triumphant ;  and  in  1841,  the  "  act  for  the  encourage- 
ment of  Agriculture,"  with  an  appropriation  of  $8,000  per  annum, 
for  five  years  became  a  law.  In  February  of  the  same  year,  the 
State  Society  was  re-organized,  and  its  Constitution  revised,  prepara- 
tory to  the  opening  of  its  career  under  the  provisions  of  the  new  act 
of  the  Legislature.  By  direction  of  its  managers,  a  cattle  show  and 
fair  w^as  appointed  to  be  held  at  Syracuse  in  September  of  that  year, 


12 


which  was  energetically  carried  out ;  aad  although  but  an  experiment, 
the  result  of  that  exhibition  abundantly  demonstrated  the  capacity  and 
disposition  of  the  farmers  of  New-York  to  exercise  the  important 
trust  which  had  been  committed  to  their  hands. 

Encouraged  by  that  beneficent  law.  Agricultural  Societies  were 
coustituted  in  a  large  majority,  of  the  coimties  of  the  State  during  that 
year,  which  have  since  been  maintained  with  increasing  zeal  and  be- 
nefit. The  law  making  appropriations  for  this  object  has  been  re- 
newed to  the  present  time  ;  and  he  must  be  a  hardy  legislator  who 
can  now  raise  a  voice  of  potency  against  its  continuance,  so  deeply 
grounded  are  its  healthful  influences  in  the  affections  of  our  people. 
An  act  pregnant  with  greater  good  to  the  prosperity  of  the  State, 
next  to  establishing  the  foundations  of  social  order,  and  domestic  se- 
curity, never  has  emanated  from  your  Legislature ;  and  long,  long, 
and  with  increasing  bounty,  may  it  continue  ! 

In  viewing  the  progress  of  this  great  measure  through  its  first  fee- 
ble efforts  at  existence,  until  its  final  consummation  by  law,  and  its 
rapid  advancement  since,  an  acknowledgment  of  deep  gratitude  is  due 
to  the  liberality  which  has  pervaded  the  ranks  of  those  professions  and 
occupations  in  our  community  not  agricultural.  The  most  formidable 
obstacles  which  the  promoters  of  this  institution  have  met  in  all  their 
efforts,  were  either  the  determined  inaction,  or  direct  opposition  of 
the  mass  of  the  farmers  themselves.  I  speak  this  more  in  sorrow  than 
in  anger,  that  they  who  were  to  be  most  benefitted  by  its  results, 
should  be  the  slowest  in  yielding  it  their  support ;  while  those  of  the 
learned  professions,  the  mechanics,  artizans,  and  merchants  generally, 
both  in  and  out  of  the  Legislature,  and  throughout  the  State,  gave  to 
our  efforts  a  general  and  hearty  concm'rence.  The  comparatively 
few  practical  farmers  whose  zeal  and  co-operation  would  take  no  de- 
nial until  success  had  croAvned  their  efforts,  represented,  with  but 


-13 

few  exceptions,  an  inactive  and  thankless  constituency  at  home.  It 
is,  however,  most  consolatory  to  remark,  that  the  practical  operations 
of  this  and  the  county  societies  have  awakened  a  spirit  of  emulation 
and  enquiry  among  the  mass  of  our  farmers  which,  although  slow  in 
its  growth,  must  ultimately  be  crowned  with  the  most  gratifying  re- 
sults. 

Nor  is  the  inactivity  complained  of,  perhaps,  imnatural  on  the  part 
of  the  agricultural  class.  Engaged  in  a  retired  and  domestic  occupa- 
tion ;  unusued  to  habits  of  professional  association,  of  which  they 
have  not  been  taught  the  necessity,  nor  felt  the  stimulating  influence, 
they  have  neglected  to  adopt  that  combined  action  which  distinguish 
the  other  professions,  and  is  the  main  spring  to  their  success  in  the 
improvement  which  they  so  rapidly  accomplish.  But  we  are  ascer- 
taining that  this  system  of  association,  in  order  to  advance  to  any 
high  degree  of  improvement  also,  we  must  effectually  practice  ;  for 
it  is  only  to  the  habits  of  inquiry,  and  examination  of  whatever  sub- 
ject he  may  have  in  hand,  that  gives  success  to  the  master  of  any  occu- 
pation whatever.  Why  is  it  the  fact — ^and  fact  it  is — that  many  of  the 
best  and  most  successful  farmers  in  our  country  are  those,  who,  bred 
to  other  pursuits,  and  toiled  in  them  to  middle  age — and  many  far  be- 
yond it — tin  from  inclination,  or  necessity,  they  have  embraced  agri- 
culture as  an  occupation,  with  a  determination  to  succeed  1  It  is  be- 
cause investigation  has  been  the  habit  of  their  lives.  They  do  no- 
thing without  a  good  and  satisfactory  reason  for  doing  it.  They  bend 
every  faculty  of  the  mind  to  acquire  success  in  this,  as  they  did  in 
their  previous  pursuits  ;  and  the  application  of  the  same  intelligenee 
upon  the  farm  that  had  there  been  exerted,  produced  the  same  results, 
although  their  early  education  and  subsequent  labors  had  kept  them 
in  profound  ignorance  of  the  simplest  rules  of  practical  agriculture. 
The  most  gratifying  success  has  been  thus  accomplished,  while  he, 
who  has  from  childhood  tilled  his  paternal  acres  in  obstinate  and  per- 


14 


severing  ignorance  of  the  true  principles  of  bis  art,  although  scorning 
in  the  pride  of  his  own  fancied  superiority,  the  more  timid  efforts  of 
his  thoughtful  neighbor,  delves  on  through  life,  a  v/re  tched  and  un- 
successful farmer,  and  in  time  leaves  the  world  no  better,  so  far  as 
his  own  labors  were  concerned,  than  he  found  it ;  and  is  finally  bu- 
ried beneath  a  soil  over  which  he  plodded  for  three  score  years,  and 
never  knew  a  single  part  of  its  composition  ! 

This,  though  perhaps  an  extreme,  and  certainly  not  a  flattering 
picture,  is  still  a  type  of  agricultural  life,  in  its  way,  existing  in  every 
one  of  our  United  States.  In  what  profession  throughout  the  length 
and  breadth  of  our  land  is  there  so  little  progress — nay,  such  deter- 
mined opposition  to  progress,  as  in  the  ranks  of  agriculture  1  I  would 
not  assert  that  numerous  eminent  examples  of  improvement  have  not 
existed  among  those  of  purely  agricultural  occupation.  But  they  are 
rare  as  compared  with  men  of  other  pursuits  when  applied  with  all 
their  research  and  intelligence  to  agriculture  alone. 

And  it  may  well  be  inquired,  why  is  this  so  1  Agriculture  occu- 
pies four-fifths  of  the  laboring  population  of  the  land.  From  the 
agricultural  ranks  have  sprung  many  of  the  most  illustrious  names 
whose  services  have  adorned  and  honored  their  country.  From  its 
ranks,  too,  have  perhaps  a  majority  of  the  most  successful  among 
those  engaged  in  the  various  other  pursuits  and  occupations  of  life 
arisen.  In  short,  there  can  be  no  class  of  our  population  which  af- 
fords so  sure  a  basis  on  which  to  rely  for  an  infusion  into  all  other 
pursuits  to  the  durable  prosperity  of  a  State  as  the  agricultural.  Such 
is  the  gratifying  truth  ;  and  it  is  to  the  health-giving  influences  of 
the  soil  itself ;  the  free  wild  air  of  heaven  that  he  breathes  ;  cheer- 
ful exercise  and  occupation  ;  contentment ;  and  the  full,  unrestrained 
enjoyment  of  man's  first  estate  bestowed  by  God  himself,  that  thus 
constitutes  in  him  who  tills  the  soil,  the  full  development  of  his  fa- 
culties in  all  the  admirable  proportions  of  body  and  of  mind  that  his 


Creator  intended.  Notwithstanding  all  this,  the  question  still  recurs, 
and  may  be  variously  answered.  The  very  ease  and  contentment 
of  condition  in  the  farmer,  is  one  probable  cause  of  his  inactivity  in 
improvement.  The  quietude  of  his  avocations  prevents  that  constant 
attrition  of  mind  inseparable  from  the  bustling  activity  of  most  other 
pursuits ;  and  the  certainty  with  which  the  soil  yields  its  annual 
tribute  to  his  labor,  dispels  that  spirit  of  investigation  common  to 
classes  the  result  of  whose  labors  is  contingent  or  uncertain.  Nor 
yet  is  the  farmer  an  ignorant,  or  a  slothful  msm.  In  the  great  re- 
sponsibilities of  life — in  domestic  duty — in  love  of  country — in  the 
orderly  support  of  the  institutions  of  the  land — in  stern  watchfulness 
over  the  acts  of  those  he  has  placed  in  authority,  and  in  that  exalted 
patriotism  which  is  ever  ready  for  the  heaviest  sacrifice  to  the  benefit 
of  "his  race,  he,  as  a  class  stands  without  a  rival.  And  yet,  possessed 
of  all  these  qualities,  and  enjoying  all  these  advantages,  the  absence 
of  the  spirit  of  association,  leaves  him  in  effect  the  least  benefitted  at 
the  hands  of  those  he  elects  to  govern  him,  of  all  others. 

Who  invents,  improves,  and  perfects  the  plow,  and  all  the  nameless 
implements  which  alleviate  his  toil  and  accelerate  his  labor  1  Who 
analyzes  his  soils,  instructs  him  in  their  various  qualities,  and  teaches 
him  how  to  mix  and  manure  them  for  the  most  profitable  cultivation'? 
The  mechanic — the  chemist.  Who,  ascertaining  that  his  seeds  are 
imperfect  and  unprofitable,  searches  foreign  lands  for  new  or  better 
ones,  and  introduces  them  to  his  notice  1  The  commercial  adventu- 
rer, or  the  travelled  man  of  enquiry  and  observation.  Who,  on 
comparing  the  inferior  domestic  animals  which  he  propagates,  and  in 
whose  growth  and  fattening  he  loses  half  his  toil  and  the  food  they 
consume,  sends  abroad,  regardless  of  expense,  and  introduces  the 
best  breeds  of  horses,  cattle,  sheep  and  swine  for  his  benefit  *?  In 
nine  cases  out  of  ten  these  labors  and  benefactions — and  their  name 


16 


is  legion — ^are  performed  by  those  whose  occupations  have  been  chiefly 
in  other  channels,  and  whose  agricultural  tastes  have  led  them  into 
the  spirit  of  improving  it.  And  in  how  many  examples  have  we 
witnessed  the  apathy,  if  not  determmed  opposition  with  which  the 
farmer  proper — or  at  least  he  who  claimed  to  be  one — ^has  set  his  face 
like  flint  against  their  adoption,  even  after  their  superiority  had  been 
demonstrated  beyond  a  question  ! 

So,  too,  with  the  farmer's  education.     They  have  been  content  that 
the  resources  and  the  bounty  of  the  State  should  be  lavished  upon  the 
higher  seats  of  learning,  where  the  more  aspiring  of  our  youth  should  re- 
ceive their  benefits,  not  caring  even  to  inquire  whether  such  youth  should 
again  return  among  them  to  reflect  back  the  knowledge  thus  acquired. 
They  have  failed  to  demand  from  the   common  treasure  of  the  State 
those  necessary  institutions  which  shall  promote  their  own  particular 
calling,  and  which  every  other  pursuit  and  profession  in  the  land  has 
been  most  active  to  accomplish.     In  all  this  the  latter  have  progressed 
with  railway  speed ;  while  the  farming  interest  has  stood  still  with 
folded  arms,  and  done  comparatively  nothing ;  and  what  good  has 
been  forced  upon  it  by  others,  even  regarded  with  suspicion.     It  is 
not  because  we  as  farmers,  compared  with  others,  are  either  ignorant 
or  stupid.     We  only  neglect  to  assert  our  rights,  and  appropriate  the 
share  to  which  we  are  entitled  in  the  common  patronage  of  the  State 
to  the  benefit  of  our  own  professions.     It  is  for  us  to  ask — to  will — to 
do  it.     We  hold  the  power  of  the  State  by  our  numbers.     We  can 
control  the  halls  of  legislation.     We  can  so  direct  the  laws  that  we 
may  share  equal  advantages  in  our  institutions  with  others.     We  de- 
sire nothing  exclusively  to  our  own  advantage,  but  we  do  deserve  an 
equal  participation  in  those  institutions  established  for  the  common 
benefit  of  all. 


17 


If  a  practical  inference  may  be  drawn  from  the  thoughts  thus  de- 
sultorily thrown  together,  it  would  be  that,  from  a  history  of  the  past, 
and  the  condition  of  our  agriculture  as  it  now  exists,  we  demand  that 
our  profession  shall  be  placed  within  the  reach  of  equal  advantages 
for  improvement  that  are  now  enjoyed  by  other  professions.  Under 
a  condition  of  things  constituted  like  those  which  we  have  discussed, 
you,  gentlemen  of  the  Society,  have  labored  during  the  last  seven- 
teen years,  through  anxiety  and  toil,  directed  by  honest  purpose  and 
intelligent  action,  until  you  have  arrived  at  a  successful  issue.  It 
has  been  a  labor  if  not  of  discovering  the  precious  metal  in  the 
earth  at  least  that  of  removing  the  inert  mass  from  the  surface,  to 
the  quarrying  of  the  mine,  and  the  upraising  of  the  valuable  ore  to 
the  admiration  of  the  community,  to  be  wrought  by  skillful  artizans 
into  handiwork  of  infinite  utility  and  ornament.  Aside  from  meta- 
phor ;  a  mass  of  long  slumbering  prejudice  and  inertia  has  been  re- 
moved ;  the  spirit  of  improvement  has  been  awakened  ;  our  agricul- 
tural resources  have  been  partially  developed;  our  exertions  have 
won  an  acknowledgement  of  the  importance  and  dignity  of  our  call- 
ing, which  none  can  gainsay ;  and  it  is  thus  that  your  Society,  through 
its  labors  and  results,  now  stands  an  object  of  respect  and  admira- 
tion to  our  countrymen.  A  great  good  has  therefore  been  effected, 
and  in  contemplating  the  position  which  your  Society  now  occupies, 
I  do  it  in  no  exulting  spirit  of  laudation,  or  of  triumph,  but  as  admon- 
ishing you,  that  having  accomplished  so  much,  you  have  the  highest 
incentive  to  still  further,  if  not  weightier  labors  and  achievements. 
Not  content  with  creating  an  institution  which  holds  an  established 
rank  among  kindred  institutions  abroad,  and  maintaining  honorable 
and  kindly  intercourse  with  them ;  nor  that  you  annually  draw  out 
the  farmers,  mechanics  and  citizens  of  this  and  of  neighboring  States 


18 


in  laudable  competition  for  superiority  in  their  productions  ,and 
ingenuity,  and  giving  the  results  of  your  investigations  to  the  world — 
higher  objects  await  your  efforts,  and  invite  your  attainment.  You 
will  bear  with  me,  I  trust,  while  I  offer  such  suggestions  on  this  in- 
teresting topic  as  shall  appear  germain  to  the  occasion. 

Agricultural  education  should  attract  largely  your  attention ;  and 
it  is  a  subject  which  will  bear  a  little  examination.     The  pittance  of 
$8,000  a  year  is  now  doled  out  of  your  public  treasury,  a  bare  re- 
cognition only  of  the  importance  and  value  of  agricultural  associations, 
of  which  the  stipend  of  $700  is  paid  to  your  Society.     To  call  this 
State  bounty,  which  we  in  courtesy  do,  is  little  better  than  mockery. 
Forty  thousand  dollars  a  year  would  now  be  less,  compared  with  the 
wealth   and  resources  of  the  State,  than  $10,000  in  3819.     Why, 
gentlemen,  the  annual  appropriations  to  agricultural  advancement 
from  the  State  Treasury,  is  less  than  that  given  to  three  of  your  col- 
leges, where  less  than  two  hundred  students  yearly  graduate.   Appro- 
priations amounting  to  more  than  $500,000  of  public  money  have 
been  made  by  law  for  the  endowment  of  colleges;  and  your  Litera- 
ture Fund  is  still  annually  drawn  upon  to  the  amount  of  $15,000  in 
contributing  to  their  support,  while  their  halls  remain  a  sealed  book 
to  him  who  looks  only  to  agriculture  as  the  profession  of  his  life  ; 
and  of  the  thousands  who  there  receive  the  bounty  of  the  State  in 
aid  of  their  education,  not  a  tithe  of  them  in  the  course  of  their  lives 
add  a  dollar  to  the   physical   or  productive  wealth  of  the  country. 
The  common  school,  or  the  village  academy  is  the  only  institution 
where  the  young  farmer   gains  admittance ;  and  even  there,  as  at 
present  constituted,  he  hardly  acquires  an  idea  of  the  rudest  elements 
of  his  future  profession,  or  of  those  studies  which  properly  belong 
to  it. 

These  remarks  are  not  made  in  a  querulous  or  fault-finding  temper. 
It  is  right  that  we  have  colleges,  and  academies  for  the  few  who  as- 


19 


pire  to  the  higher  walks  of  professional  or  scientific  life,  as  well  as 
common  schools  for  the  million.  No  State  can  be  well,  or  wisely 
constituted  without  them,  and  I  would  not  abate  one  jot  or  tittle  from 
the  wholesome  support  which  a  broad  and  liberal  system  of  education 
demands.  But  we  should  claim,  and  insist,  that  departments  devoted 
to  agricultural  teaching,  or  to  the  development  of  agricultural  sci- 
ence, should  be  established,  either  as  branches  of  our  seats  of  learn- 
ing, or  as  independent  institutions.  Why  should  not  the  farmer  be 
educated  to  the  top  of  his  faculties,  as  well  as  those  who  select  what 
are  termed  the  learned  professions  as  their  pursuit  t.  If  our  sons 
cannot  be  taught  the  education  they  seek  in  the  colleges — and  there 
are  well  grounded  doubts  of  this  fact  from  the  moral  malaria  too 
often  existing  within  and  around  them — institutions  for  their  sole  edu- 
cation should  be  aided,  or  erected,  and  endowed  by  the  State.  This 
subject  has  been  annually  debated  in  your  meetings  for  years  past ; 
but  influenced  by  a  strange  timidity,  no  decided  action  beyond  a  for- 
mal and  altogether  harmless  expression  of  opinion  has  been  efiFected. 
I  beseech  you,  gentlemen,  to  look  at  this  matter.  The  real  and  per- 
sonal property  of  this  State  is  more  than  one  thousand  millions  of 
dollars.  Nominally,  in  the  assessors  returns,  it  is  rated  at  less  than 
650  millions-  In  these  returns,  it  is  notorious  that  real  estate  is  not 
assessed  at  over  two-thirds  its  real  value,  and  it  is  safe  to  say,  that 
owing  to  the  imperfect  and  partial  system  of  taxation,  not  one-half 
the  personal  property  of  the  State,  comparatively  little  of  which  is 
held  by  the  farmer,  is  taxed  at  all ;  and  in  its  practical  operation,  ag- 
ricultural capital  pays  two  to  one  over  that  devoted  to  other  purpo- 
ses. Yet  with  all  this  burthen  on  its  back,  the  farming  interest  either 
stands  back  from  your  halls  of  legislation  abashed,  although  nominal- 
ly represented  there  by  its  members;  or  if  plucking  a  momentary 
courage  by  the  congregation  of  its  numbers  on  an  occasion  like  the 
present,  it  literally  shrinks  away,  either  ashamed  to  ask  its  rights,  or 


20 


if  asking,  couched  in  such  a  subdued  tone  of  humility,  that  the  Le- 
gislature scarce  believe  you  in  earnest.  This,  gentlemen,  is  your  at- 
titude before  the  temporary  power  which  you  create  to  govern  you! 
Contrast  it  with  the  conduct  of  those  who  seek  a  different  kind  of 
favor  at  its  hands.  Watch  the  thousands  of  applicants  for  corporate, 
and  exclusive  privileges,  and  State  patronage,  who  have  in  times  past 
beseiged  your  halls  of  legislation.  With  what  confidence  they  ap- 
proach and  lay  seigetothe  law-making  power  ;  and  how  like  "sturdy 
beggars  "  they  persevere,  till,  wright  or  wrong,  their  importunities  are 
granted.  And  in  parenthasis  I  might  continue  to  remark,  that  the  his- 
tory of  our  corporate  legislation  is  monstrous.  Some  years  by  gone, 
and  banking  charters  were  the  only  subject  of  moment  before  these 
bodies  ;  and  that  legislator  who  did  not  go  home  with  more  or  less 
of  the  promised  shares  of  a  successful  application  in  his  pocket,  was 
considered  as  but  a  dull  financier,  or  strongly  suspected  of  having 
what,  in  private  life,  is  called — a  conscience !  In  later  time,  it  has  been 
asserted  that  railroad  corporations  have  controlled  your  Legisla- 
tures— ridden  into  their  seats  by  aid  of  free  tickets  ;  and  cotemporary 
with  them,  had  we  farmers  caught  the  spirit  of  the  day,  and  adopted 
characteristic  weapons  of  success,  each  one  of  us  would  have  ap- 
peared with  a  sheep  on  his  back,  or  a  truss  of  poultr}  at  his  elbow, 
to  lunch  them  into  acquiescence! 

But,  badinage  apart;  this  is  a  subject  of  serious,  of  momentous  conse- 
quence,not  only  to  us,  but  to  the  State  at  large.  We  are  a  growing  people; 
not  in  population  alone,but  in  wealth,  and  in  resources.  Our  whole  coun- 
try is  comparatively  new,  and  wealth  is  accumulated  with  us  as  with  no 
other  people  of  which  history  gives  an  example.  I  speak  of  substan- 
tial, enduring  wealth  ;  that  which  adds  to  the  enjoyment,  the  happi- 
ness, and  the  truly  elevated  condition  of  man.  Of  all  this  wealth  and 
prosperity,  agriculture  is  the  basis— the  indispensable  support.     Yet, 


in  defiance  of  this  reiterated  truth,  as  an  occupation,  agricultur*-  of 
itself,  is  degraded.  Let  politicians,  or  demagogues  chant  their  paens 
to  the  tillers  of  the  soil  as  they  may,  and  tell  them  of  the  honor,  and 
the  dignity  of  their  estate  ;  yet,  practically,  simple  farming  is  consi- 
dered by  those  who  assume  to  give  tone  and  opinion  in  social  and  po- 
litical life,  an  inferior  occupation,  fit  only  for  dull,  unthinking,  and 
uneducated  men.  Were  it  not  so,  why  are  the  Agricultural  ranks  so 
continually  deserted  by  our  active  and  aspiring  youth  for  the  more 
worldly  popular  pursuits,  under  the  belief  that  they  are  more  advan- 
tageous 1  Look  at  our  great,  bustling  cities,  and  towns.  See  on  all 
sides  our  professions  crowded  to  excess  ;  with,  among  the  masses 
which  throng  them,  but  a  comparatively  few  who  are  successful  either 
in  fame  or  fortune.  View  our  merchants,  and  shopkeepers,  overrun 
and  undermined  in  competition  with  one  another ;  and  clerks,  and 
shopboys  plentier  and  cheaper  on  their  hands  than  the  wares  they 
hold  on  sale  ;  and  all  the  motley  congregations  which  are  drawn 
about  them  by  the  spirit  of  adventure  and  of  novelty  ;  while  the  petty 
political  offices  of  the  day  are  held  up  like  lottery  tickets,  to  an  un- 
scrupulous and  indiscriminate  scramble; — all  for  the  possession  of  a 
fancied  prize  in  the  great  raffling  match  of  adventure  ;  while  the  shop 
of  the  mechanic,  or  the  artizan,  which  holds,  out  a  safe  and  durable  re- 
ward to  honorable  labor,  is  hard  pressed  to  find  apprentices ;  and  the 
broad,  inviting  acres  of  the  farmer,  are  lying  sterile  or  unproductive, 
for  lack  of  cultivation. 

In  ministering  to  this  vitiated  appetite  of  discontent,  the  farmer 
himself  is  oft  times  blameable.  In  a  too  humble  estimat-"?  of  his  own 
condition  and  character,  and  in  the  absence  of  those  advantages  for 
his  children,  of  which  he  himself  has  felt  the  want;  with  a  fond  desire 
for  their  welfare,  he  has  encouraged  their  early  restless  propensities  ; 
and  hoping  that  the  wide  world  of  chance,  or  speculation,  or  luck, 
would  cast  them  in  a  happier  lot  than  his  own,  has  pitched  the  al- 


22 


ready  limited  share  of  himself,  and  those  who  yet  prefer  the  quiet 
homestead,  to  fit  out»for  some  undecided  profession,  or  dubious  branch 
of  traffic,  him  who,  under  this  misplaced  partiality,  now  goes  abroad, 
in  time  to  return,  a  prodigal  son,  or,  as  is  often  the  case,  to  beggar 
the  family  by  his  extravagance. 

On  the  other  side,  it  may  be  said,  that  the  enterprising  lad,  thus 
leaving  his  home  with  laborious  habits  and  well  fixed  principles,  soon 
engages  in  some  active  pursuit,  and  succeeds  far  beyond  a  brother  of 
perhaps  equal  talent,  who  has  remained  at  home,  and  only  inherited 
the  toil  and  poverty  of  the  parent,  in  whose  track  he  had  diligently 
pursued.  Very  true  ;  but  mark  the  difference  in  advantage.  The 
adventurous  youth  had  fallen  on  a  beaten  track,  with  intelligent  lights 
to  aid  his  course,  which,  only  to  follow  with  engergy  and  prudence, 
was  to  succeed.  The  other  had  groped  along  in  a  cloud  of  tradition- 
ary fog,  and  floundered  on  in  the  uncertainty  of  guess-work,  with  no 
accurate  light  to  guide  him;  like  the  mariner  who  departs  on  his  voy- 
age, with  ship  and  sails  to  be  sure,  but  miserably  appointed,  vdthout 
rudder,  chart  or  compass;  while  the  first,  with  ship  well  found,  and  a 
master  mind  at  helm,  is  wafted  on  to  a  successful  destination. 

Do  you  ask  for  the  reflux  of  tide  from  the  mass  of  other  to  Agricul- 
tural pursuits  1  You  look  for  it  in  vain.  How  many,  bred  in  our 
cities,  towns,  and  villages',  seek  the  farm  for  employment — leave  the 
too  often  casual  occupations  of  the  crowd,  and  take  to  the  plough,  or 
to  the  forest  1  None  whatever.  Or  if,  perchance,  there  be  an  isola- 
ted case  of  the  sort,  it  is,  when  following  the  parent,  who,  tired  of 
the  world's  vanities,  or  its  fitful  changes,  wisely  retires  to  the  farm 
for  that  solid  good  which  a  bustling  world  had  denied  him. 

There  is  another  great  and  responsible  class  among  us  who  have  an 
abiding  interest  in  the  exaltation  of  our  Agriculture.  I  speak  ol  the 
wealthy  classes  distributed  throughout  our  cities,  towns,  and  villages. 
Owing  to  the  free  and  happy  institutions  we  enjoy,  well  directed  in- 


dustry,  coupled  with  perseverance  and  economy  in  most  branches  of 
business,  is  tolerably  sure  to  succeed.  But  with  the  success  of  the 
parent,  and  his  consequent  devotion  to  the  labors  of  his  office,  or  his 
counting  room,  that  necessary  vigilance  and  watchfulness  over  the 
proper  education  and  employment  of  his  child,  is  too  often  neglected. 
Honestly  feehng  the  strength  of  his  own  self-reliance,  he  trusts  that 
the  son  may  follow  in  his  own  laborious  and  successful  course.  But 
a  few  years  only  pass,  and  that  son  has  arrived  at  manhood,  vitiated, 
perhaps,  by  adverse  associations,  or  if  still  within  the  path  of  safety, 
unfitted  by  education,  or  the  false  estimate  of  his  position  in  life,  to 
succeed  in  the  beaten  track  of  parental  example.  In  a  great  majo- 
rity of  cases,  capital,  toilfully  gathered,  and  safely  invested,  is  squan- 
dered, or  lost  in  business  adventure  by  the  misapplication  of  the  son, 
while  the  hopeful  parent  had  never  considered,  that  when  he  had  fur- 
nished the  means,  he  could  not  regulate  the  brains  to  control  it ;  and 
after,  perhaps,  repeated  trials,  he  withdraws  him  from  business  alto- 
gether, an  unsuccessful  and  disappointed  man  ;  and  the  parent  him- 
self, if  he  escape  the  ruin  of  the  son,  is  at  a  loss  to  know  how  he  shall 
provide  for  his  decent  employment,  or  witness  the  wasting  of  his  own 
gains  during  life  time  in  an  unprofitable  support — for  in  this  country, 
thank  God,  a  man  must  do  something  to  make  him  respectable.  And 
yet  the  well  meaning  and  laborious  parent  is  scarely  to  blame.  He 
has  looked  abroad  among  the  pursuits  of  the  world,  and  finds  none 
more  generally  successful  than  the  one  he  himself  has  occupied.  But 
risen,  perchance,  from  comparative  poverty  himself,  he  cannot  real- 
ize that  the  strong  incentive  for  exertion,  which  existed  in  his  own 
case,  is  absent  in  the  son,  and  therefore,  that  they  each  look  out  upon 
the  world  from  widely  different  premises. 

Nor,  during  all  this  probation  of  anxiety  and  solicitude,  has  it  ever 
occurred  to  the  father,  that  Agriculture  held  out  the  safest  mode  of 
investment  for  a  portion  of  his  gains ;  and  if  not  the  most  rapid  in 


24 


accumulation  of  worldly  goods,  was,  at  least,  the  surest  pursuit  for 
his  children,  in  the  absence  of  that  successful  tact  which  he  himself 
possessed  for  professional,  mercantile,  or  mechanical  life.  But  he 
has,  on  the  other  hand,  imbibed  the  popular  and  mistaken  notions  of 
the  day  on  that  subject.  He  might,  like  others  who  fancied  they 
had  some  Agricultural  taste,  have  had  his  own  country  house  and 
farm,  got  up  at  great  expense;  and  been  pestered  with  worthless  ser- 
vants, and  dishonest  managers,  who  only  pillaged  and  worried  him  ; 
and  after  a  brief  and  unsatisfactory  trial,  abandoned  it  in  disgust,  like 
hundreds  of  his  friends  and  neighbors;  never  dreaming  that  his  farm- 
ing got  on  quite  as  well  as  his  law,  or  his  trade  would  have  done, 
with  the  same  amount  of  his  own  personal  attention!  That,  and  the 
drudgery  of  the  ordinary  farmer,  who  tilled  his  own  scanty  acres  in 
his  immediate  neighborhood,  and  whose  association,  as  ignorant  and 
degrading,  he  had  scorned,  were  the  only  experience  he  had  known, 
on  which  to  make  up  his  opinions ;  and  as  a  matter  of  course,  he  only 
knew  agriculture  to  condemn  it. 

But  had  Agriculture  her  proper  institutions,  where  his  children 
could  have  been  taught  its  necessary  education  and  practice,  and  ex- 
erted its  proper  influence  among  the  pursuits  of  the  day,  how  readily 
would  he  have  embraced  the  advantages  it  offered  to  his  family,  and 
eagerly  bestowed  the  best  talents  of  his  sons  to  its  rewards!  Thus 
prepared  to  enjoy  it,  how  many  thousands  of  men,  rich  in  the  ac- 
quirement of  proper  knowledge,  and  fortified  in  the  possession  of 
wholesome  estates,  would  be  shining  examples  of  thrift  and  improve- 
ment in  our  midst!  Ample  domains,  with  broad  cultivated  fields — 
spreading  pastures,  dotted  with  the  lively  spectacle  of  flocks  and 
herds — meadows,  waving  under  the  burthen  of  their  luxuriant  grasses; 
and  graced  with  comfortable  mansions  and  bending  orchards;  and 
peopled  throughout  the  year  with  those  who  really  felt  the  dignity  of 
their  calling,  would  spread  along  your  noble  rivers;  and  look  abroad 


25 

from  your  lofty  hills;  and  line  in  beautiful  relief  your  canals  and  tho- 
roughfares— spectacles  of  home  bred  comfort,  and  independence,  illus- 
trative of  true  American  character.  But  instead  of  these,  are  seen 
the  fantastic  rillas,  and  ephemeral  erections,  which  perk  up  in  ambi- 
tious pretension  on  the  elevated  knolls  of  your  noble  Hudson,  the 
summer  abodes  of  "  fancy  farming,"  only  to  be  abandoned  after  a 
few  brief  occupations  in  a  round  of  ennui  killing  pastimes,  and  voted 
— a  bore.  Such  empty  essay  at  Agricultural  life  usually  ends  in  the 
squander  of  what  would,  if  judiciously  invested  in  a  useful  farm,  have 
been  a  handsome  estate,  and  is  sold,  perhaps,  under  the  hammer,  at  a 
tithe  of  its  cost  to  some  man  of  better  sense,  who  pulls  down  the 
bauble,  or  changes  it  into  an  appearance  of  propriety,  and  appropri- 
ates the  soil  to  useful  purposes 

It  may  be  said  that  these  pictures  are  of  extreme  cases.  So  they 
are.  And  also  that  they  are  subject  to  many  proper  exceptions. 
Very  true.  But  they  do  exist,  and  that  in  far  too  great  numbers,  and 
scarce  one  of  us  but  knows  an  instance  of  their  just  application. 
Still  there  is  a  great  class  left;  the  substantial  middle  class  of  our 
farmers,  who  require  for  their  sons,  destined  to  follow  in  their  own 
steady  course,  that  necessary  kind  of  education  at  present  unattaina- 
ble in  our  country,  and  which  can  only  be  properly  given  in  agricul- 
tural schools.  The  young  farmer  painfully  feels  the  want  of  advan- 
tages which  these  would  confer,  and  the  aid  of  which,  he  vainly  seeks 
elsewhere;  and  the  question,  how  are  we  to  accomplish  the  object, 
remains  to  be  answered. 

Although  keenly  alive  to  the  necessity,  1,  for  one,  am  not  prepared 
to  submit  to  you  a  definite  plan;  yet  am  prepared  for  prompt,  vigor- 
ous, and  decisive  action.  In  the  first  place,  I  believe  a  trial  of  some 
kind — an  experiment,  if  you  please — should  be  made.  Our  State  haS 
not  been  fearful  to  make  experiments  in  the  establishment  of  any  work, 


!3@ 


the  practical  utility  of  which  has  once  been  settled.  A  few  thousands, 
nay,  millions  of  dollars,  have  not  deterred  our  legislators  from  either 
taxing  the  people,  or  appropriating  its  already  accumulated  treasures 
for  works  tending  to  the  public  welfure.  Our  literature  and  common 
school  funds  have  been  augmented  in  various  ways,  until  common 
education  throughout  the  State  is  almost  free,  and  in  some  communi- 
ties absolutely  so,  by  the  aid  of  general  taxation  on  property.  Me- 
dical institutions,  as  well  as  colleges,  have  been  largely  endowed,  and 
are  still  assisted  by  the  State;  and  you  have  abundant  example  that  the 
disposition  has  not  been  wanting  in  our  government  to  execute,  where 
the  great  constiutent  body  has  demanded  the  work.  The  propriety  of 
this  measure  has  reached  your  high  places,  and  I  refer  with  great  plea- 
sure to  the  recent  message  of  Governor  Fish,  who,  in  view  of  the  be- 
nign results  accomplished  by  your  society,  has  emphatically  recom- 
mended "  the  endowment  by  the  State  of  an  Agricultural  School  and 
a  school  for  instruction  in  the  Mechanic  Arts;"  and  this,  if  followed 
up  with  the  zeal  and  earnestness  which  its  importance  demands,  you 
may  certainly  effect.  I  cannot  believe  that  a  wise  and  intelligent 
Legislature  will  longer  deny  your  prayer.  It  may  be  said,  that  we 
have  in  this  country  no  examples  from  which  to  copy  an  institution  of 
this  kind.  No  matter.  They  exist  abroad,  in  the  full  tide  of  success, 
far  beyond  the  probation  of  experiment;  the  Hofwyl  School,  in  Swit- 
zerland, founded  by  Fellenburgh,  for  example,  to  say  nothing  of  oth- 
ers, equally  successful,  in  other  countries  of  Europe.  To  them  might 
Commissioners  repair,  at  a  moderate  expense,  for  models  of  instruc- 
tion, so  far  as  they  are  adapted  to  our  wants  and  condition;  and  were 
it  not  so,  it  is  but  a  poor  commentary  upon  American  ingenuity  and 
enterprize,  to  halt  at  any  thing  supposed  to  be  ultimately  attainable, 
without  the  strongest  effort  to  effect  it;  and  we  can  no  more  doubt 
the  final  success  of  institutions  of  this  kind,  than  we  can  doubt  the 
conquering  career  of  the  steam  engine,  or  the  electric  battery. 


27 


The  laying  deep  and  broad,  the  foundations  of  a  State  Agricultural 
School,  subject  to  an  equal  ratio  of  scholars  from  the  several  counties 
of  the  State,  would  be  in  accordance  with  the  already  established  plans 
of  distributing  the  public  benefits  of  education,  and  liable  to  no  ob- 
jection. Thus,  the  necessary  knowledge,  so  acquired,  would  be  car- 
ried back  among  our  population,  to  be  spread  broadcast,  in  the  re- 
motest districts  of  the  State,  through  branches  of  other  institutions, 
which  might  be  set  apart  for  that  purpose,  or  established  independent- 
ly, through  private  liberality  or  enterprize.  It  cannot  be  expected, 
indeed  it  never  was  anticipated,  that  the  State  Agricultural  Society 
should  embark  in  a  work  of  this  kind;  it  has  neither  the  necessary 
funds  nor  the  corporate  strength  to  effect  it,  and  in  pursuing  the  cor- 
rect path  already  indicated,  it  has  abundant  exercise  for  all  its  func- 
tions. Yet  its  advisory  aid  and  co-operation  would  be  invaluable,  and 
greatly  add  to  the  utility  and  success  of  any  agricultural  institution. 

Aside  from  the  establishment  of  an  independent  School  for  agricul- 
ture, the  State  might  with  great  propriety  provide  a  department  in  the 
Normal  School,  now  becoming  a  settled  branch  of  public  education, 
for  instruction  in  the  principles  of  Agricultural  Science,  which,  from 
them,  might  be  taught  in  the  common  schools.  Popular  works  on 
Geology,  Agricultural  Chemistry,  Botany,  Animal,  and  Vegetable 
Physiology,  the  plain  principles  of  Mechanic  Art — all  which  are  in- 
dispensable to  the  proper  education  of  the  farmer,  might  be  taught  in 
a  plain,  and  simple  course  of  lessons,  as  easily  as  the  ordinary  rules 
of  arithmetic,  or  mathematics;  and  a  knowledge  of  these  w^ould  be  the 
source  of  satisfaction,  if  not  of  future  profit,  to  every  scholar.  "  Du- 
ring the  past  year,"  I  quote  the  language  of  Governor  Fish, "  $8 1 ,624.06 
have  been  expended  by  the  State  for  the  increase  of  books  in  the 
school  district  libraries,  to  which  have  been  added,  one  million  three 
hundred  thousand  volumes,"     Works  of  the  kind  which  have  been 


mentioned,  together  with  well  approved  Agricultural  books,  should 
form  a  portion  of  the  annual  additions  to  these  libraries;  and  if  such 
works  cannot  be  found,  the  necessary  authority  should  be  created  for 
their  compilation.  Thus  you  provide  the  means  of  self  instruction 
in  a  great  degree,  to  the  humblest  and  most  obscure  inquirer,  and  that 
without  cost. 

In  these  last  suggestions,  I  am  gratified  to  remark,  that  we  have 
the  testimony  of  such  high  authority  as  the  late  Governor  Wright,  in 
the  address  he  had  prepared,  and  which  was  read  after  his  lamented 
death,  before  your  Society,  at  Saratoga.  It  was  a  subject  to  which 
he  had,  unquestionably,  given  much  of  his  strong  and  vigorous  thought, 
and  may  be  well  received  by  us  as  worthy  of  profound  considera-  • 
tion. 

Let  us  then  commence  the  work,  and  proceed  until  we  effect  this 
momentous  object.  Let  it  become  the  duty  of  a  committee  of  your 
body,  to  take  the  subject  in  charge,  and  wait  upon  the  Legislature, 
with  all  the  resources  they  may  commanct,  to  aid  them  in  enacting  a 
law,  and  to  carry  out  its  provisions.  This  once  effected,  your  future 
success  is  certain.  The  time  is  auspicious.  I  believe  the  public 
mind  is  prepared  to  receive  it,  and  that  it  will  be  hailed  with  heartfelt 
gratification  by  all  classes  of  our  community. 

Among  the  benefits  arising  from  well  directed  Agricultural  educa- 
tion, aside  from  spreading  the  requisite  learning  and  intelligence  ap- 
plicable to  the  chief  pursuit  of  our  people,  deep  and  broad  among 
them,  the  retention  of  that  portion  of  active  capital,  acquired  by  the 
industry  of  our  Agricultural  population,  among  themselves,  would  be. 
one  important  consequence.  In  place  of  the  prevailing  and  mistaken 
notion  that  monied  capital  invested  in  agriculture  is  either  unproduc- 
tive, or  less  so  than  in  other  pursuits,  our  farmers  would  be  taught 
that,  coupled  with  he  knowledge  to  direct  it,  no  branch  of  our  national 


29 


industry  is  so  steadily  remunerating  as  that  connected  with  the  soil — 
a  fact  now  practically  disbelieved  ;  or  why  would  such  amounts  of 
monied  capital  be  continually  drawn  from  the  agricultural  districts  to 
your  commercial  cities,  to  be  embarked  in  hazardous  enterprises,  or 
doubtful  investments?  The  merchant,  or  the  speculator  may  fail — and 
fail  he  does,  very  often — and  in  his  downfall. is  often  buried  the  toils  of 
a  long  life  of  patient  industry.  But  who  ever  knew  a  good  farmer, 
of  prudent  habits  to  fail?  Nay,  who  did  not,  with  an  exemption  from 
extraordinary  ills  in  life,  ultimately  grow  rich,  and  discharge  mean- 
time, all  the  duties  of  a  good  citizen?  I  concede  to  you  the  many 
prominent  cases  which  exist,  of  wealth  rapidly  accumulated  by  bold 
and  successful  speculation;  of  fortunate,  perhaps  accidental  adven- 
ture; of  hoards  heaped  up  by  a  long  course  of  perseverance  in  trade, 
directed  by  that  intuitive  sagacity  of  which  but  few  among  us  all  are 
endowed,  and  which  so  dazzlingly  invite  our  imitation.  Yet  these 
are  but  a  few  glaring  instances,  standing  out  in  bold  relief  among  the 
many  who  have  sunk  in  the  same  career,  perhaps  with  a  ruined  peace; 
happy  afterwards  to  retire,  were  it  in  their  power,  upon  the  limited 
possession  which  they  had  thrown  away,  to  commence  their  wasting 
strife  upon  the  broad  sea  of  adventure. 

A  second  advantage  would  be,  that  it  would  invite,  annually,  a  large 
class  of  educated  men  of  capital  from  our  cities,  to  invest  a  portion  of 
their  wealth  in  our  farms,  convinced  by  the  knowledge  acquired  in  a 
course  of  agricultural  education,  that  Husbandry  was  a  good  business, 
and  intending  to  pursue  it  as  the  occupation  of  their  lives,  it  would 
cause  a  reflux  of  that  capital  and  population  which  had  been  drawn 
away  from  agriculture.  Nor  would  such  associations  among  us  de- 
tract from  the  industrious  habits  of  our  farmers  by  their  example. 
They,  by  the  possession  of  larger  estates  than  we  enjoy,  might  give 
more  of  their  time  to  leisure  than  we  are  accustomed  to  spend;  but 


they  must,  if  good  farmers,  attend  to  the  daily  routine  of  their  affairs, 
as  well  as  we.  They  would  diffuse  intelligence  among  us;  introduce 
improved  implements,  seeds,  and  stock;  and  in  time,  surely  exalt  the 
character  of  our  husbandry.  They  might  not,  indeed,  work  at  the 
muck  heap,  nor  guide  the  plow  with  their  own  hands;  but  they  must 
be  capable,  from  education,  to  direct  the  labor  of  both;  for  we  must 
not  forget  that  the  merchant  who,  from  his  luxurious  coimting  room^ 
plans  his  voyages,  and  directs  the  course  of  his  ships;  or  the  engi- 
neer who  projects  the  rail-way,  or  the  ocean  steamer,  once  performed 
the  duties  of  a  shop  boy,  or  hammered  at  the  anvil.  And  thus  with 
the  farmer:  he  should  be  capable  of  directing  the  cultivation  of  the 
soil  to  its  greatest  possible  extent  of  production  ;  and  he  will  find 
that,  in  achieving  such  result,  all  the  powers  of  his  mind,  and  the 
knowledge  with  which  it  is  stored,  will  be  required. 

This  thought  will  bear  a  little  examination.  The  farmer  is  apt  to 
think  that  the  professional  man,  or  the  merchant,  lives  an  easy  and 
luxurious  life.  In  many  instances  their  families  may  do  so  ;  but 
with  the  eminent  and  successful  man  of  law,  or  science — ^the  artizan, 
or  merchant  himself,  such  supposition  is  a  great  mistake.  There  are 
not,  under  heaven,  a  more  laborious  class  of  men  than  these.  Labor 
of  body,  and  of  mind  is  theirs — and  that  incessant.  See  them  early, 
late;  in  season,  and  out  of  season — their  whole  energies  devoted  to 
their  several  callings,  without  rest,  or  intermission — and  far  too  fie- 
quently,  to  the  premature  wasting  of  life  itself.  It  is  no  wonder  that 
such  industry,  directed  by  good  education,  (and  by  this  term  I  mean 
the  entire  training  of  the  boy  to  manhood  in  its  most  extended  sense,) 
and  stimulated  by  a  laudable  ambition,  should  lead  to  success.  Yet 
with  all  these  appliances,  the  labors  of  such  men  are  often  disas- 
trous ;  and  if  not  so,  after  a  life  of  anxiety,  their  toils  too  frequnntly 
end  with  but  the  means  of  a  slender  support.     Compared  with  these, 


u 


the  toils  of  the  farmer  are  light.  Physical  labor  he  endures,  it  is 
true,  and  often  times  severe  labor,  but  his  mind  is  easy.  He  enjoys 
sound  rest,  and  high  health.  He  has  much  leisure ;  in  many  cases 
more  than  is  for  his  good.  He  has  abundant  time  to  discuss  politics, 
law,  religion — everything,  in  fact,  but  what  relates  to  his  own  profes- 
sion, on  which  subject,  I  lament  to  say,  his  mind  seems  less  exercised 
than  on  almost  any  other.  Now,  let  the  same  early  education  be 
given  to  the  young  farmer  of  an  equally  acute  intellect  that  is  ^ven 
to  him  who  chooses  professional,  mechanical,  or  mercantile  pursuits — 
education  each  in  his  own  line.  Let  them  start  fair.  Apply  the  same 
thought,  investigation,  energy,  and  toil,  each  in  his  particular  sphere, 
and  beyond  all  question  agriculture  will,  in  the  aggregate,  have  the 
advantage — and  for  this  reason,  if  no  other:  there  are  few  contingen- 
cies connected  with  agriculture.  Its  basis  is  the  solid  earth,  stamped 
with  the  Divine  promise,  that  while  it  remains,  seed-time  and  harvest 
shall  continue;  while  commerce,  and  trade;  mechanics,  and  arts  are 
liable  to  extraordinary  and  continual  accident.  Look  at  the  devasta- 
tions by  flood,  and  fire — of  ship,  and  cargo,  upon  ocean,  lake, 
and  sea,  and  river ;  conflagrations  in  your  towns  and  cities  ;  and  the 
thousand  other  casualties  which  almost  daily  occur — all  which  are  a 
dead  sink  upon  labor  and  capital  not  agricultural,  and  the  risks  of 
the  husbandman  are  scarce  one  to  ten,  in  the  comparison.  Rely  upon 
it,  Farmers,  you  are  on  the  safe  side. 

But,  I  hear  some  one  remark,  "  Why,  if  agriculture,  through  the 
improved  education  proposed,  holds  out  such  alluring  advantages,  all 
our  young  men  will  rush  into  it,  and  competition  will  destroy  it." 
Not  the  slightest  danger.  Our  young  men  are  already  running  into 
the  other  trades  and  professions,  where  competition  is  ruinous ;  and 
all  we  ask,  is  the  opportunity  to  get  a  share  of  them  back  again. 
Besides,  there  is  no  fear  that  the  other  avenues  of  industry  will  not 


33 


be  filled ;  for,  in  the  constitution  of  our  natures,  there  will  always  be 
enough  unquiet  spirits  born  into  the  world  which  the  farm  cannot 
hold,  to  keep  the  bustling  part  of  it  in  motion. 

Another,  and  a  prominent  advantage  which  we  should  receive  from 
good  agricultural  education,  would  be,  that  of  more  stability  of  cha- 
racter in  our  farming  population.  It  is  proverbial  among  traveled 
foreigners  in  this  country,  and  it  would  be  a  subject  of  wonder  among 
our  staid  people  at  home — if  an  American  could  wonder  at  anything 
— that  we  are  the  most  changing  people  in  the  world.  We,  as  a 
population,  have  few,  scarce  any,  local  attachments.  This,  to  an  ex- 
tent, is  a  true,  although  a  severe  censure.  It  arises,  no  doubt — and 
naturally  enough,  too — from  the  wide  extent  of  national  domain  of 
which  we  are  the  possessors,  and  from  the  natural  sterility  of  much 
of  the  soil  in  our  older  communities,  which  cause  an  effort,  and  a 
laudable  one,  too,  to  better  thdr  condition  in  our  rural  population. 
But  more,  I  imagine,  from  the  low  standard  of  agricultural  improve- 
ment, and  a  mistaken  estimate  of  the  value  of  the  soil,  and  its  appli- 
cation to  the  products  which  properly  belong  to  it.  But,  no  matter 
what  the  cause.  The  fact  is  so,  and  it  is  a  defect  in  our  national  cha- 
racter. How  many  among  us  but  will,  with  a  slightly  tempting 
offer,  sell  his  homestead  without  remorse — break  up  the  cherished 
associations  of  his  life — turn  his  back  upon  the  graves  of  his  kindred, 
and  his  children — his  birth-spot — the  old  hearth-stone  of  his  boyhood 
— his  family  altar,  even  the  brave  old  trees,  which  have,  life-long, 
waved  their  branches  over  his  childish  sports,  and  shadowed  his  inno- 
cent slumbers  when  weary  of  his  play,  all — all,  pass  out  of  his  hands, 
like  a  plaything  of  yesterday,  unwept  and  unregretted,  for  the  fancied 
advantage  of  a  fresh  spot  in  a  strange  and  a  newer  land. 

I  must,  however,  in  justice,  make  some  exceptions  to  this  general 
propensity  in  American  character.  There  are  some  among  the  descend- 


89 


ants  of  the  early  New  England  Puritans,  and  the  ancient  Dutch  settlers  of 
this  State,  who  have,  with  a  pious  regard  to  the  memories  of  their 
ancestors,  and  a  wise  attachment  to  the  spots  of  their  birth,  retained, 
and,  through  the  influences  of  a  correct  education,  and  well  settled 
principle,  bid  fair  to  retain,  the  paternal  acres  which  they  have  inhe- 
rited— homes  of  plenty,  contentment,  and  genuine  hospitality ;  where 
retired  \artues,  like  those  practised  by  their  fathers,  have  long  hallow- 
ed them  with  a  local  habitation  and  a  name.  Such,  stand  out  as 
strong  landmarks  in  the  fitful  changes  of  place,  and  name  throughout 
our  country,  and  redeem,  to  some  extent,  the  caustic  remark  of  the 
late  John  Randolph,  of  Roanoke,  who- once  declared,  on  the  floor  of 
Congress,  that  he  scarce  knew  an  American  but  would  sell  his  very 
dog  for  money!. 

We  are  not  slow  in  finding  out  when  we  are  well  oflT,  although  all 
are  not  satisfied  under  such  condition  ;  but  with  these  advantages 
around  and  among  us,  of  which  we  feel  the  daily  benefit,  and  of 
which,  by  r^oval,  we  should  forever  be  deprived,  their  tendency 
would  be  to  fix  us  more  firmly  to  our  homes,  and  lead  us  to  examine 
the  resources  within  our  reach,  which  otherwise  might  never  have 
been  developed.  Associations  of  an  elevated  character  are  among  the 
most  powerful  in  thus  keeping  us  content ;  and  institutions  in  which  the 
farmer  has  a  direct  interest,  would,  more  than  almost  any  other,  allay 
this  tendency  to  change.  Our  resources,  and  our  productive  power, 
are  thus  retained,  far  beyond  what  can  be  acquired  by  the  continued 
restlessness  common  to  us.  Such  influences  wonld  certainly  be  most 
wholesome. 

Another,  and  the  last  valuable  aid  derived  from  a  dissemination  of 
Agricultural  Science,  which  I  shall  mention,  would  be  the  establish- 
ment of  correct  standards  of  judgment  to  govern  awards  at  you*" 
various  cattle-shows.  We  now  congregate  together  from  all  parts  of 
the  State,  and  invite  our  brethren  from  other  States  to  exhibit  their 


34 


productions  by  the  side  of  our  ovm.  But  by  what  rules  are  those 
productions  thus  brought  into  competition  examined,  and  your  prizes 
awarded  7  Why,  from  the  very  necessity  of  the  case,  no  rules  at  all. 
Your  examining  committees,  having  no  standard  by  which  to  judge 
the  comparative  scale  of  excellence  in  domestic  animals,  excepting, 
perhaps,  a  false  estimate — or  prejudice — or  individual  taste,  differ 
widely  in  their  opinion  of  what  is  good,  or  what  is  bad  j  of  what  is 
deserving,  and  what  is  undeserving  j  and  with  all  the  flourish  and 
eclat  of  a  splendid  and  imposing  show,  perhaps  the  worst  animals 
take  your  highest  prizes.  As  a  consequence,  the  truly  good  and 
scientific  breeder  leaves  in  disgust;  while  the  careless,  indifferent 
one,  walks  off  in  triimiph,  glorying  in  the  brute  which  ignorance, 
accident,  or  chance  has  thus  given  him  credit  for,  and  he  is  forever 
ruined  for  all  further  improvement,  by  having  his  ignorance  or  pre- 
judices endorsed  by  the  Society,  and  holds,  as  a  matter  of  course,  the 
useful  and  accurate  breeder  in  contempt.  All  this  mischief.  Agricul- 
tural Education  and  Science  would  rectify ;  and  that  not  alone.  The 
adoption  of  rules  of  proceeding  based  upon  accurately  defined  results, 
and  ascertained  through  correct  principles,  would  give  to  your  Society 
that  high  stamp  of  authority  in  its  decisions  which,  from  its  name  and 
position,  it  should  command;  and  without  which,  it  must  remain 
shorn  of  half  its  utility. 

I  have  thus,  gentlemen  of  the  Society,  tediously  to  you,  I  fear, 
thrown  together  the  imperfect  and  random  thoughts  which  this  sub- 
ject has  suggested; — ^a  subject  which  lies  near  my  heart,  and  has  long 
been  to  many  of  you  one  of  deep  solicitude.  If,  in  the  arguments 
and  illustrations  advanced,  I  have  spoken  some  unwelcome  truths  in 
a  tone  of  apparent  censure,  and  kept  back  the  voice  of  commenda- 
tion, it  is  not  that  I  am  insensible  that  we  may  also  contemplate  the 
many  subjects  of  gratulation  and  pride,  which  exist  around  us,  and 
have  been  won  by  the  labors  of  an  intelligent,  an  active,  and  a  won- 


35 


derfully  energetic  people.  Inhabiting  a  State  urivalled  in  its  fortu- 
nate position  among  the  constellation  with  which  we  are  nmnbered — 
possessing  the  great  entrepot  of  our  national  commerce — and  through 
our  magnificent  works  of  internal  improvement,  become  the  carriers 
for  almost  half  an  empire,  disbursing,  annually,  millions  of  revenue 
derived  from  our  public  works,  through  our  State  Treasury — culti- 
vating a  soil  eminently  kind  in  its  agricultural  productions — ^enjoying, 
almost  without  a  parallel,  the  benefits  of  civil,  religious,  and  literary 
nstitutions,  steadily  shedding  their  lights  and  their  influences  over  a 
well  ordered  and  rapidly  improving  people  5  it  is  with  a  heart  of  ex- 
altation that  I  feel  our  course  to  be  onward,  to  the  consummation  of 
a  more  perfect  day.  We  shall  attain  the  great  and  beneficent  objects 
we  demand;  and  if  we  do  not  now  succeed,  I  have  an  abiding  confi- 
dence that  our  fervent  wishes  will  yet  be  accomplished — a  crowning 
work  among  the  munificent  institutions  which  grace,  and  dignify, 
and  elevate  your  State. 

In  contemplating  the  progress  thus  far,  of  your  Society,  and  the 
results  of  your  labors,  you  have  just  cause  of  satisfaction.  You 
found  the  ore  in  its  dross;  you  have  ascertained  the  method  of  its 
separation,  and  defined  the  process  of  working  it  successfully  into 
those  useful  and  enduring  forms  which  not  only  benefit  the  State,  but 
redound  to  your  own  good  name.  You  have  only  to  persevere,  and 
higher — more  perfect  attainments  await  your  exertions. 

In  n(tw  taking  a  final  official  leave  of  you — resigning,  I  trust,  to 
more  efficient  hands,  the  honorable  post  to  which,  a  year  ago,  your 
kind  partiality  assigned  me,  I  can  only  regret  that  I  have  not  possess- 
ed more  ability  to  aid  your  exertions,  and  a  more  extended  influence 
to  draw  into  your  support.  My  honest  efforts,  such  as  they  were, 
have  been  devoted  to  your  service>  May  Heaven's  choicest  favors 
rest  upon  your  labors  for  the  welfare  of  your  fellow-men. 


Permit  me  now,  gentlemen,  as  my  last  presiding  act,  to  introduce 
to  you  the  President  elect  of  your  Society,  the  Hon.  John  A.  King, 
of  the  county  of  Queens — ^in  whose  long  association  with  you,  and 
the  hearty  zeal  he  has  invariably  manifested  in  the  labors  of  this 
Society,  we  have  every  confidence  that  his  best  efforts,  and  most  dili- 
gent labors  will  be  exerted  in  your  cause. 


